Melon 2016

James Jean made this mysterious painting "Melon," and it feels like a dreamscape you might stumble into just before waking. I can imagine Jean building up layers of translucent paint, each stroke considered yet yielding to the unknown. Look at the color palette, the faded rose background, and the figure rendered in cool blues and greens. It’s almost like a statue slowly dissolving back into the earth, returning to the elements. The melons are lusciously painted; you can almost feel the smooth rind and taste that sweet, watery flesh. The drips feel really important, like tears or sap—a kind of emotional juice. I wonder if Jean was thinking about the cycle of life and decay when he was working on this. It reminds me of other painters like Odilon Redon or even Paula Rego, artists who weren't afraid to delve into the strange undercurrents of the psyche. There's a conversation happening here, a back and forth between artists across generations. Painting is a form of thinking, it’s an ongoing investigation of what it means to be human, to feel, to see.